The present invention relates to electronically timed and electrically operated votive lights and, more specifically, to an electronic circuit which permits individual lamp units to be illuminated for a predetermined period of time.
Candles have been used in religious ceremonies since long before the advent of Christianity. These candles have taken various forms and one popular form is the votive candle which is usually placed inside a red glass holder and is generally displayed in the sanctuary in rows on racks. Such votive candles are then individually lit in order to signify the offering of prayers or special intentions. These votive candles have been a very traditional manner of indicating such special intentions and, typically, the intention is accompanied by a donation or contribution and the candle then burns until it is exhausted. Such candles may be chosen to remain lit for various periods but the conventional or traditional periods are either four hours or seven days.
Although these candles are a tradition in many churches and denominations, they provide serious fire hazards, since the candles remain lit overnight when the church is essentially unattended. Moreover, the open flames of the candles will tend to provide smoke which not only adversely affects the air quality in the church but often times provides an unpleasant odor. Also, because the candles are conventional paraffine or beeswax candles, the burning wick will release considerable amounts of soot and lampblack into the air, which tends to soil the walls and the interior of the church, thereby increasing the normal cleaning and maintenance requirements. While these disadvantages may seem minimal, it should be noted that very often hundreds of such candles are arrayed at the front of the church and the small contribution by each candle then becomes magnified accordingly.
Although the use of the votive candles involve all of the above mentioned drawbacks, it would never be seriously considered to eliminate the use of votive lights, since they form such an important part of many traditional church ceremonies.